This Week on the Nintendo Shop: a Non-Zero List of Games

[Doctor Setebos]

Nintendo seems to be going a bit crazy on the DSiWare releases these days. Maybe they're trying to get people to buy as much of it as possible before the 3DS is finally unveiled and DSiWare sales plummet as a result? Of course, that's assuming DSiWare sales are currently at a point from which they are capable of plummeting.

Truly the strongest contender in this week's lineup would have to be Military Madness: Nectaris on WiiWare. It's followed closely by the arcade version of Zaxxon on the Virtual Console (depending on your particular level of or aversion to "nostalgia").

Full game descriptions below.

DSiWare

Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A.
Publisher: Gameloft
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) - Suggestive Themes, Tobacco Reference, Violence
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Move to the West Coast and immerse yourself in Los Angeles gang life with Gangstar 2: Kings of L.A. Complete 75 different missions that combine the best of action games and driving games. Explore Los Angeles and its famous neighborhoods, including Hollywood, Beverly Hills, downtown, the suburbs and the harbor. A unique feeling of freedom: Drive or walk anywhere in massive, open environments. Feel free to complete missions at your own pace, or just do absolutely anything you want. A thrilling storyline with flashbacks and unexpected developments: Go from rags to riches, connect with relatives and help out their gang until you're living the golden life. Improved driving experience: Drive cars, quads, motorcycles and use the environment to perform unbelievable stunts. Use the inner camera or outer camera to decrease your wanted status, take a new photo of your face and fake your ID card to remain incognito.

AlphaBounce™
Publisher: Mad Monkey Studios
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) - Drug Reference, Violent References
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: AlphaBounce combines the classical brick-breaking concept with strong RPG features, offering you the chance to explore an endless universe with millions of levels. Discover items hidden in the deepest corners of the galaxy. Use these items to modify your spaceship and improve your firepower. You have been taken prisoner by an evil intergalactic mining corporation and exiled to outer space. With the help of your spaceship, your mission is to blast your way through the bricks in order to find a way back to Earth.

7 Card Games
Publisher: cerasus.media
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen) - Simulated Gambling
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: Who has the best hand? Take a seat, have a drink and get started: Keep a straight face during poker while you wager the bluff of your life. Put it all on one hit in Black Jack - and take the jackpot. You choose the number of opponents. Prefer something quieter? Then try a Solitaire game like Freecell or Klondike. Whether you prefer a quick round here and there or fun for the entire evening, now you can always have your favorite card games right at your fingertips. The detailed graphics and authentic atmosphere will wow you.

AiRace
Publisher: QubicGames
Players: 1-6
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points
Description: AiRace is a high-octane, adrenaline-fueled air, speed and stunt game for the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL™ systems. AiRace is not your typical hand-held racing - it's high-sky racing at its best. There are no limits to your flight with 360° movement and unique steering with the Nintendo DSi stylus. AiRace offers you a chance to control one of nine planes and compete against AI or human opponents in six exotic locations. With great physics, plane upgrades, on-the-track power-ups and unique maps, AiRace offers a little bit more than your average racing. Now it's time to leave your cars and switch to airplanes.

WiiWare

Military Madness: Nectaris
Publisher: Hudson Entertainment
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: E 10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) - Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 1,000 Wii Points™
Description: The Military is back for a new generation of recruits. The classic turn-based strategy series Military Madness, aka Nectaris, is exploding onto the WiiWare service. With a new graphical barrage, a new commander unit, online team and vs. multiplayer modes, and a platoon of other new features, this is the maddest game in the series yet. 4-Person Online Multiplayer: Coordinate strategies or taunt foes in team or vs. multiplayer modes for up to four people. A new unit - Commanders: Choose a commander to lead your forces in multiplayer and choose from 20 unique abilities. Multiple command views: Plan out strategy in the overhead map view and watch glorious battles unfold with cinematic camera action. Detailed stat-tracking leaderboards: Increase your rank as you march up the leaderboards on your mission to prove you're the top general around.

Virtual Console

Zaxxon
Original platform: Arcade
Publisher: SEGA
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) - Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: Travel back to a time when a lovable alien phoned home, gas cost a mere 90 cents a gallon and everyone was wearing high-tops, leg warmers and had big hair. This was the early '80s, and this was when video gamers nationwide were wowed by the cutting-edge graphics and sound effects of the first three-dimensional-like intergalactic arcade shooter: Zaxxon. Touted as the first game to put video display in perspective, Zaxxon featured "looks" and "sounds" like actual aircraft flight, allowing players to command their ship just like a real fighter pilot. Dive, bank, fly left and right, and up and down - Zaxxon had it all. Fly through heavily armored space fortresses while strafing fuel tanks, dodging walls and blowing up enemy missiles and gunnery. This game is littered with explosions. Then take the fight to the enemy fighter fleet and destroy the aggressor ships with extreme prejudice. Blasting pixels has never been so fun.

Enjoy!

[TrackZero]

Originally Posted by Doctor Setebos

A thrilling storyline with flashbacks and unexpected developments: Go from rags to riches

Someone needs to explain to Gameloft what colons are for. You kind of ruin your unexpected development by explaining it; call me crazy.

Edit: My bad, Hudson is the winner of English fail.

Originally Posted by Doctor Setebos

The classic turn-based strategy series Military Madness, aka Nectaris

'aka' is not equal to a colon, Hudson. It also should be capitalized if you're going to use it.

[Gorvi]

Is that an SD version of the Military Madness game that hit PSN last year? I never played the original, but I really didn't care for that.

[boratika]

Originally Posted by TrackZero

'aka' is not equal to a colon, Hudson. It also should be capitalized if you're going to use it.

It's a remake of Military Madness, which was called Nectaris in Japan. I guess they wanted cross region uniformity, so they just smooshed both names together.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Doctor Setebos

Nintendo seems to be going a bit crazy on the DSiWare releases these days. Maybe they're trying to get people to buy as much of it as possible before the 3DS is finally unveiled and DSiWare sales plummet as a result? Of course, that's assuming DSiWare sales are currently at a point from which they are capable of plummeting.

I'm sure the 3DS will be compatible with existing DSiWare games, as well as new ones that take advantage of the new hardware. Of course, you'll probably still not be able to transfer your old ones. I'd be wary of buying any BEFORE getting the 3DS, not after.

Seriously, Nintendo's one-console-only DRM is why I stopped buying DSiWare games months ago.

[JayVe]

I'm more interested in a version of Zaxxon engineered for the 3DS. Finally, the ability to tell where my ship is in relation to those damn walls.

[Spigot]

Now I need to figure out where my Zaxxon board game got off to. I'd be very tempted to get Zaxxon if only for the huge part it played in my childhood.

[RandoM51]

Military Madness was the best reason to have a turbografx, IMHO. It got more play time than the rest of my turbografx games combined.

[LordDon]

So many wonderful nights playing Military Madness on the Turbografx 16.